Warren said: "This is very sad but hopefully the start of something good for Frank.

"It was something he needs to address and hopefully he can get the help he needs, to get peace of mind and to get better."

Earlier this year Bruno ignored medical advice and applied to have his boxing licence reinstated in a bid to regain the heavyweight world title he won in 1995.

Former world champion boxer Barry McGuigan said Bruno's behaviour of late had been "irrational" and he may have "buckled" under the weight of a number of recent personal issues.

As well as his wife leaving him, McGuigan said, he had also lost a very close friend when his former trainer George Francis committed suicide last year.

Mental health charity Sane criticised unsympathetic coverage of his illness in the media.

An early edition of the Sun had the front page headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up", which was later changed to "Sad Bruno in Mental Home".

Negative coverage

Sane chief executive Marjorie Wallace said: "It is both an insult to Mr Bruno and damaging to the many thousands of people who endure mental illness to label him as 'bonkers' or 'a nutter' and having to be 'put in a mental home'.

Conservative spokesman on health Dr Liam Fox said such negative coverage could stop other people coming forward to get the care they need.

He said the reporting reflected prejudice against mental illness throughout society.

"It will affect one in three of us at some point in our lives and I think that we have to have a much more mature, sensitive and understanding approach to mental illness," Dr Fox warned.

"We need to see it, not as a threat to us, but as a personal tragedy to those involved," he added.